Yesterday.

Vestiges Remain From A Plague Of The Past

November 12, 1995|By Marc Davis. Special to the Tribune.

Once it was a serious health problem that affected countless Americans, including residents of Lake County: tuberculosis. Decade after decade through the 20th Century, however, the disease had been brought under control in the United States and almost disappeared until a recent resurgence among small segements of the population.

In Lake County in 1910, according to historical sources, there was a tent community of tuberculosis patients near the Waukegan city limits on Grand Avenue. Fresh air, healthy food and bed rest were the TB treatment of choice 85 years ago. But the increasing use of tuberculin testing and chest X-rays for early detection, the pasteurization of milk, and drug therapy helped combat the disease; better nutrition and hygiene helped prevent it.

Still, people became infected. When the necessity for a modern Lake County facility became apparent, the design for the Lake County Tuberculosis Sanitorium was created by architects William A. Ganster and William L. Pereira. The long, low structure, with the clean, spare lines of the modern Bauhaus style, was built in Waukegan in 1939 on a large lot at 2400 Belvidere St.

Today the building is a Lake County Health Department clinic. It provides, among other services, testing and counseling for AIDS and HIV, another serious national health problem that medical science, hopefully will also conquer.